UK Government Hydrogen Event

17th June 2011

ITM Power (AIM: ITM), the energy storage and clean fuel company, announces that it today participated in the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Demonstrator showcase event at London’s City Hall, sponsored by the Technology Strategy Board and the Department of Energy & Climate Change (“DECC”).

Innovation in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies has advanced significantly as a result of the £7 million DECC-funded demonstrator programme delivered by the Technology Strategy Board and lead partners of the projects involved here today described and demonstrated their technologies. For ITM Power, CEO Dr Graham Cooley gave a presentation on the Company’s hydrogen technology and demonstrated its HFuel hydrogen refueller product to an invited audience of government, industry and media. The keynote address was delivered by the Hon. Greg Barker, Minister of State for Energy & Climate Change, who said, “Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are at the forefront of new energy solutions, which will dramatically cut emissions from transport, and the Coalition [government] is determined to support their development.”

The Technology Strategy Board announced that it is planning the next step in helping to accelerate innovation in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies with a new £7.5 million programme, commencing in early 2012, to address the need for whole system solutions and to explore ways of integrating these technologies into energy and transport, such as renewable energies or refuelling infrastructures. ITM Power believes that renewable power needs energy storage and that exporting the stored energy to the transport sector would be a great solution both to reducing carbon footprint – green hydrogen is a zero carbon option – and increasing energy security. The Company’s Hydrogen On Site Trials (“HOST”) of its HFuel refueller have attracted 21 commercial partners confirming ITM Power’s view that early adopters of this technology are likely to be commercial fleet operators. The HOST programme to establish economics and business models would not have been possible without the support of the Technology Strategy Board and DECC.

Commenting for ITM Power Dr Graham Cooley said, “We are very pleased that the Government is providing support for our projects. Hydrogen technologies are here today, workable in real life situations and commercial. Adoption around the world is accelerating and is being led by Germany, USA and Japan. The UK now has the technology companies to be a very close follower.”

Explaining the background to the new competition to open next year, David Bott, Director of Innovation Programmes at the Technology Strategy Board, said, “We now have technologies at a relatively mature stage of development, with a number of hydrogen and fuel cell systems being demonstrated for buildings or vehicles. The new competition is designed to help business-led consortia develop innovative, large-scale, application-led projects that integrate hydrogen and fuel cell systems with key elements of our energy and transport systems and the wider built environment. Through this funding we hope to leverage further investment, strengthening the UK’s capability a national level and supporting the development of new strategic partnerships in the UK.”